Turnout largest since 2001

About 16 percent went to the polls in city election

CORPUS CHRISTI - More voters went to the polls than in any city election since 2001.

About 16 percent of voters went to the polls in the election that concluded Saturday, with heavy turnout in the Southside and on Padre Island. That reverses a near-record low in 2007, when just 11.8 percent of voters participated. The total number of voters was 25,516 of 164,697 registered city voters.

A contested race for mayor sent people to the polls, said Bob Bezdek, a Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi political science professor who has researched Corpus Christi city elections as far back as the 1930s.

About 49 percent of the voters who participated went to the polls early, about the same percentage as in 2007.

Joe Adame took a big 5,000-vote lead among early voters, with a decisive margin in Districts 4 and 5, heavily Anglo areas that typically have good turnout.

About 56 percent of votes came from areas on the Southside and Padre Island. Those areas, represented by Districts 4 and 5, also had a big sway in the mayoral race and races for at-large council slots.

Steve Ray, a political consultant who represented at-large candidates David Loeb and Brent Chesney, attributed some of the high early voting turnout in Districts 4 and 5 to the work of the Island Political Action Committee.

"I think the PAC has been extremely effective," Ray said. "That's good news for the people they endorsed." The PAC endorsed Loeb, Scott, Adame and Chesney. Chesney was elected and Loeb narrowly missed being one of the three at-large victors.

Bezdek noted that in early voting, Adame had a big lead in heavily Anglo areas. His margins diminished in areas with more Hispanic voters, but Adame still carried those.

Bezdek noted that two Hispanic candidates, at-large incumbent Nelda Martinez and District 5 incumbent Larry Elizondo, did well on Padre Island.

"It means people aren't focusing on ethnicity as much as they used to," Bezdek said.

This year also mirrored previous years, when heavily Democratic, mostly Hispanic voters from the Westside saw low turnout.

"Part of the problem is that so many people on the Westside work on Election Day," said Alex Garcia, a former Nueces County Democratic Party chairman.

Not everyone was satisfied with the turnout.

"I wish people would take the time," said Aaron Muñoz, a campaign manager for District 3 candidate Roland Barrera, who made the runoff against incumbent Priscilla Leal. "It takes five minutes to vote."